


Afterlife

by Mixxium



Category: Re:ゼロから始める異世界生活 | Re:Zero Starting Life in Another World (Anime)
Genre: F/M, Ground Hog's Day, Respawn, Return by Death, Time Loop, re:zero - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-15
Updated: 2018-12-07
Packaged: 2018-12-30 03:51:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12100101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mixxium/pseuds/Mixxium
Summary: I'm writing this story to try and rework what I thought was bad about Re: Zero. The main character "Subaru" never changed due to his power to reset time. He only was able to become either more toxic or more of what he was before. Anyway, this seeks to fix those fallacies as well as using those plot devices to write a somewhat original story. I may recreate characters or places from Re: Zero for convenience, or for plot's sake. But other than that it should be mostly original. Enjoy!





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story will take the two main story crutches of the anime “Re;Zero”. It used the concepts of a character in a fantasy world from our world, as well as “respawn”. When the main character dies he wakes up at his most recent “save” he has no control over his “save point” it updates whenever the main character survives the “event”. Events can last a single day, a week, or even a month, but they must be finished before the character can move on. This show was widely famed, and these mechanics are a big part. In that anime it focuses more on the struggle of the person who can overcome anything. Towards the end you do see him start to become psychologically damaged, via his encounter with sloth. He sees rem die, and it destroys him, showing no matter how strong anyone is, we are all vulnerable in some way. The main character was mostly unlikable, but not completely so. He was easy to empathize with, and easy to see his way of looking at the world. However the experience was hindered in a few ways, for example. The main character was difficult to care about due to his idiotic obsessions of these people around him. The only character change we get is his odd tendency to get extremely toxic when he doesn’t get his way. It makes him even harder to like than before. There seems to be no permanent mental damage due to his constant death, no PTSD, no flashbacks, no god complex, no thoughts of immortality, only trying to use his power to save people, which isn’t a bad thing, one of the best scenes is where he kills himself only to reset, so he can help another character, and he smiles with real joy, as he plummets to his death. That scene made me smile, it was the first time he actually killed himself, and the only time he did so with such pure intentions. Another anime had this idea, it’s actually my favorite anime, “Steins;Gate”. I don’t want to spoil anything serious, so I’ll give a quick rundown. The main character gains the ability to travel through time, and has to keep reliving the same days over and over and over, because, at a designated point, one of his friends will always die, it’s always the same friend, and they cannot be saved by anyone, or anything, after what can reasonably be considered a year’s worth of time, he makes a breakthrough, but this whole experience changed him so badly that he’s unrecognizable from his previous self, changing from happy and zany, and somewhat crazy, to calm, tired, and mentally destroyed. It actually pulls a lot of genuine pity, you feel bad for this person who can never win no matter his effort, whereas the main character of “Re;Zero” can only inspire pity of a lower caliber. He can only make you feel bad for him, because he is bad at trying to use his abilities he eventually becomes almost cringey to watch. So I want to use these tropes from these anime and make them work together and make a story I would rather read than what I watched to get these ideas. Let’s begin.

      Bright yellows, deep reds, warm glow across all of existence.

      “Ugh my head,” I say attempting to move, but finding myself unable to. As I looked around and began to feel my body I realized I was just sleeping, I could feel my body on my bed, the blanket draping over half of my body, and my neck, which was in a really painful position, I began to wake myself up, reaching out of the depths of my mind and into my physical body, I could wriggle my toes, move my arms, as I gained control the dream world that I saw began to turn grey.

      I opened my eyes slowly and began to sit up, my neck was sore from last night. Wait, what did I even do last night? I remember playing a few games, I must have passed out mid-game. I stood up to go into my bathroom. I walked through my living room into the bathroom. As I walked in I began to survey myself, I looked at my toned form, it was cool how I was able to finish whole anime while working out, two birds one stone. I grabbed some clothes and jumped into the shower. I let the shampoo soak into my hair as I washed my body. I got out of the shower and got dressed in a simple t-shirt and a pair of lounging shorts. As I walked back into my room I sat down in my chair, I began to doze off. I felt this warm golden area surround me again. This time it felt real, I looked around and felt my neck swivel to look. I was unable to control my real body like this. I was shown an image, a woman, with bright cyan hair was lying on the ground dying. There was a large deep violet mark across her chest, as well as dried blood coating the floor around her. It looked to either be a large burn or huge bruise. She looked at me and asked me weakly “please, get help.”

 

      I nearly leaped out of my seat. I looked around to see my room again. My heart raced as the memory faded away. All I could remember was the gold glow from when I woke up the first time. I looked at the clock, it said 13:27. I have about 5 hours to go get my food for tonight. I grabbed my phone and wallet and throw on my shoes. I decided to put on something simple to wear out in public, if I ever want a job out here I need to not look like a slob. I decided to put on a simple green tracksuit. I thought a good jog wouldn’t be so bad. I began to walk through the door and began my jog towards the store. As I ran I started to build up a sweat. I felt lightheaded during a sprint and fell on my head. The moment of impact sent a shock through me, causing a flash of gold to cover my sight, and through the gold, I could see a city plaza of sorts, but as I started to see it clearly I snapped back to my senses. I looked around and saw the market I was going to.

 

      As I made my way there I began to see images from this golden force that continued to hit me, people I’ve never seen, things I’ve never imagined, monsters that couldn’t show up in even my darkest nightmares. I blinked away these images and decided that I’d go to sleep at a normal time tonight. I walked into the market and simply grabbed a cup of ramen noodles, and a bag of chips.

 

      As I went to walk out of the store I felt the force hit me again… **Hard**. I felt my body shooting around like a comet, straight through the gold this time. I could see the plaza again, but this time it was coming in fast. I was flying towards it, without any control of my body. The plaza had people this time, but they weren’t just people. They were creatures of every shape and size. Quite a few were indistinguishable from animals, and others looked purely human. I could see more and more as I flew towards it. Until I stopped flying. I was standing still now. As I looked around to try to see the gold, I saw none. I only saw the plaza again. The difference this time is that now I’m standing in it.


	2. The first day

Looking around the plaza my mind was racing. I had no clue what had just happened and it took a moment for me to calm down and think about it. “I’m either dying or tripping balls… or both” I said in a low tone looking at the ‘people’ walking past. Many were normal humans, but several were more animal than human. Many had snouts, horns, or tails. Most people walking by were armed with various medieval weapons. Most just carried a shortsword or axe, but one walked by with a sword the size of his body strapped to his back, completely unhindered by the weapon.   
I looked at the buildings and saw nothing familiar in the various runes and scratch marks that were used for writing, though I could tell well enough what each shop did for the most part. Mostly because they had very well drawn illustrations, or things in clear view of a window. From here I had no clue what to do except find a way home. But whatever got me here has kinda just decided to fuck off, so I didn’t expect any free rides back. I decided I’d try to find some kind of police station, or considering the type of place I’m in I would say it’s most likely be a guild hall. Looking back on it, I had no clue how much that choice would end up changing my fate.  
I just wandered through the streets, it appeared to be early afternoon, so I had plenty of time to look. The whole city was much more unorthodox than cities I’ve been to. The whole thing seemed like a labyrinth. Countless dead ends and many buildings not lining up accounted for most of the confusion.  
After what I would say was 15 minutes of walking, I stumbled upon a low building that had a sign with two interlocking swords, both painted silver with a plain wooden background, though the paint was well worn. After a moment to think about what I would say, I opened the door into an empty hall. “Hello?” I called out, hoping that this wasn’t the wrong building. My worries were cleared up quickly enough when I heard a feminine voice say, “Give me just a minute and I’ll be out to help”. A women wearing a grey uniform of sorts walks out into a ‘teller’s booth’ while saying,”I was just trying to catch a few z’s in the back,” she says while focusing on adjusting her uniform, when she finished and looked up she raised an eyebrow and said, “How can I help you?”.   
I froze, I got so caught off guard that I completely forgot what I was going to say, and she was staring me down wondering why I was even here. I thought for a moment and then said,”I’m lost, I have no clue where I am or how to get back to where I was. Do you know where I can find a place to stay, my money’s probably no good, but I can work, and I can sleep just about anywhere."  
She just eyeballed me stiffly before she said with a softened expression,"You know what, I’ve got an empty room in the back you can stay in for a while,” she looked at my arms and shoulders. “But, you’ll have to come with me to pick up something important. I need some muscle, mostly for moving equipment, so if you’ll help me, I can help you.” I immediately agreed, I’d have been stupid not to.   
“So, when are we going to go do that?” I asked carefully, not wanting to say something suggestive.  
“Sometime tomorrow is when we’ll head out, should get there before nightfall and we have until the next sunset to be done.”  
“Alright,” I said satisfied.  
“Come on, I’ll show you around, My name’s Cecilia” she said leading me to the side door in the ‘office’ and led me deeper into the building. It was much larger than I had initially thought it was. The guild hall was apparently mostly empty. The guild leader recently went missing and as a result most of the guild either lost morale and gave up on the guild or fled in fear of being targeted by local thieves. Few left when he first went missing, but after 2 or so weeks people cleared out. The armory was poorly stocked and many boards on the floor were broken as well as those above, I was able to see why people wanted to go ahead and bounce, but I didn’t really have another option. After a good minute of walking we made it to my room, and it was honestly pretty nice.  
“Didn’t have time, nor really a reason to really clean in here recently, but a good sweep and a bit of dusting and it’ll be fine,” She said looking around.  
The room was very neat though as she said, it was also pretty dirty. The bed was about the size of a twin size, and there was a desk with a chair, and even a mirror and closet. The room was however lacking on size, appearing to be no longer than 6 or 7 feet wide, with the room being a square with the bed in the middle leaves little for floor space. Cobwebs dotted the corners, and everything was covered in a thin layer of dust.   
She handed me a book and an oil lantern saying,”It’ll probably get boring around here, so this should help occupy you for now.”  
I opened the book and grimaced.  
“Not a reader?”  
“I am, but I can’t read anything in here”  
She then looked at me again, and asked,”Where do you come from?”  
I took a moment and said, “That’d be a lot easier to answer if I knew where I was”  
“Well this is Libira City, about the closest thing to a safe city as you can get nowadays. The guards take their patrols seriously, but that doesn’t stop people from getting away with stuff.”  
“I’m sorry, but none of what you’ve said sounds even remotely familiar to me.”  
“Eh, it’s whatever,” she paused, and then continued with, “Do you have equipment in case we get into some trouble on the road?”  
“What kind of equipment?”  
She groaned and walked into a nearby closet, after a minute or two she came back in with a shortsword and an axe.  
“Sword or axe?”  
I knew instantly that using a sword would be a very bad idea for me, so I reached for the axe. It felt heavy, but firm and strong.  
She passed me a pen, some paper, and a heavy rucksack as she informed me, ”While you can’t read or write, you can still draw so I think this should help with boredom, and paper is no real expense right now. The rucksack has a suit of adjustable armor, though it has more nooks and crannies than most suits for that fact.” As she walked away down the hall she glanced back and said, ”I’ll come get you when we’re going to head out. It may be tonight, but I haven’t heard back yet.”  
I looked around the room and decided I’d get started on cleaning, there was a good bit to do and I had time to kill. I grabbed a broom and started on the room. After a good while sweeping the floor looked much better, and after I’d taken a cloth to the rest of the room, it also looked much better.   
While I was cleaning the room I started to feel lightheaded, which caused me to lose my balance and fall onto the bed nearby.. I felt no pressure, or saw any golden light during this spell, but I was worried all the same. That stupid light, whatever it is, is to blame for all of this. I started breathing faster and got myself pretty worked up over the light. The lightheadedness eventually compounded and made me fatigued.  
I decided to attempt to calm down and write something, but I lose track of time and fall asleep at the desk.  
I felt a warmth all around me, filling in every small ache and pain in my body. I felt complete and powerful. I opened my eyes to see the golden light, and recoiled. I looked to each side of me to see blood floating in the air around me causing me to flail wildly and slip into darkness, where I spend the rest of my night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, sorry about not following up on this story. I've been busy over this last year and it's becoming difficult to try to write, go to school, and work. I will try my best to finish this story, but it may take a while. Thank you guys so much for reading and I hope you all look forward to the next chapter.


End file.
